Connect with us
Thursday,24-April-2025
Breaking News

Sports

T20 getting to be similar to a chess game

Published

on

Cricket’s T20 format was an attempt to liven up the game and make it viewer friendly. This has proven to be a success and a lifeline for the game of cricket. Every match around the world is filled with loud, active and boisterous spectators bursting with enthusiastic energy. It reminds one of the Colosseum, where gladiators fought for their life and prestige during the days of the Roman Empire.

T20 cricket evokes a very similar attachment and emotion among the crowd, however, without the actual blood-thirsty response of yore.

The early days of T20 cricket was looked upon as a slam-bang version, wherein, thoughtless cross-bat heaves and stroke-play was the norm to follow. Yuvraj Singh, hitting 6 sixes off a Stuart Broad over, in the first ever T20 World Cup was the epitome of every batter’s desire. India, winning the Cup in 2007 was just the tonic that the doctor ordered to get the Indian fans activated.

The Indian Premier league (IPL) in 2008 had sceptics who felt that cricket was being sacrificed for commercial gains and that the sport will lose its character and the values that it stands for. The gentleman’s game that revelled in artistic stroke-play, would breed swatters who would do well killing flies. A brilliant 158 runs by Brendon McCullum from New Zealand off just 73 balls for Kolkata Knight Riders in the inaugural match of the IPL in 2008 was an eye opener. He played correct, conventional and courageous cricket shots, that not only made one admire his innings but it also became the precursor for others to follow. It gave just the boost required not only to the T20 format but also to the most lucrative cricket league in the world, the IPL.

Chris Gayle, the powerful and strong West Indian cricket star with his lusty hits, became the superstar of the IPL and one every batter wanted to emulate. Cricket changed from being a game of a number of runs scored to strike-rates, indicating the number of balls faced to get them.

Cricket, therefore, came alive with batters ready to strike and attack. The fast pace of the game forced cricketers to get more agile, fit and thereby look like well-sculptured athletes. The cameras at all corners of the field highlighted every move they made and the slow motion replays became a luxury to enjoy. A cricket match developed into a mystery story of an uncertain ending, as well as giving rise to heroes and villains as it progressed — an entertainment for the family to partake in.

The slam-bang approach of the initial T20 theory gradually gave way to a more planned and strategy-driven concept. Players, matches and conditions were being analysed to the ultimate degree by IT professionals and teams of skilled support staff, utilising the data and findings extensively for their use.

T20 cricket has gradually changed by leaps and bounds. It has become a chess match between two teams, each making moves and thinking steps ahead. Yuzvendra Chahal, the wily leg-spinner and a reputed chess player himself, in a recent interview, stated as to how he studies the batsman to outthink him. Interestingly, the game has become a mental battle between the batter and the bowler. Each one is trying to read the other to outsmart one another.

The batsman has a hint of what the bowler has in mind by the field placement put in place. However, many bowlers have outfoxed the batsman by playing a dummy move. A batter still has an advantage with bowlers having a width restriction as well as a restriction of fielders outside the 30-yard circle. The bowlers have also innovated in a major way. The variety of deliveries that many have now skilled themselves to bowl are quite remarkable and innovative.

Cricket has never had such a transformation like what it is going through in the last decade. Innovative and unimaginable strokes by the batters and varieties of variable deliveries being churned out by bowlers, has made cricket into a very different game from that in the past.

The chess board comes so much into prominence in the present T20 world of cricket. Many pawns are sacrificed and rooks, bishops and knights moved to strategise a victory. A Queen is an all-rounder who could, through batting or bowling, change the complexion of the game. The King is the citadel that every franchise team is protecting, through planned strategies and thoughtful moves to avoid a checkmate.

Cricket finally has become a game of brain as well as brawn — one that requires a cricketer to think correctly and to implement forcefully. The T20 format has totally revolutionised cricket for years to come.

One feels Test cricket will never be the same again. The modern cricketers are products of the fast changing digital world, wherein speed is important for progress. The laggards will be left behind.

Chess too has a ‘Rapid’ version to it. T10 cricket could be the next one to follow. One wonders what new innovation will come forth then.

National

Kill terrorists and show us their bodies, say families of Pahalgam attack victims

Published

on

Mumbai, April 24: The mortal remains of Santosh Jagdale and Kaustubh Ganbote, who were killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, were brought to Pune early Thursday morning.

Chants of ‘Pakistan jala do (burn down Pakistan)’ were raised during Jagdale’s funeral procession. NCP(SP) president Sharad Pawar met the families of Santosh Jagdale and Kaustubh Ganbote and expressed grief.

The Jagdale family, shattered by the brutal killing of Santosh Jagdale, burst into tears. “Today my life has been completely ruined, I cannot see my husband anymore,” said Jagdale’s wife, Pragati Jagdale, while venting out her emotions. She also demanded in front of Sharad Pawar that those terrorists should be shot the same way they killed her husband and others.

Pragati Jagdale further narrated the entire incident. “They (terrorists) had come wearing masks. There was no one there, there should have been an officer or security guard. Further, there was a delay in treatment. They didn’t tell us anything,” she said.

She added that the terrorists did not even spare the horse puller as he resisted and told them that they should not shower bullets on the tourists. “Don’t put people’s lives in danger, people’s lives are being ruined, tell me where I am going to look. My husband is not with me, what should these children do?” she asked in despair.

“I have not been able to see my husband’s face since yesterday. While in Kashmir, we could not see his face; here, too, his face is not being revealed. Terrorists shot my husband in the head. Do something for us. Find and kill those terrorists. Terrorists shot our people in the head and took out the flesh, took out the blood, do the same with them and show us the bodies of the terrorists. Terrorists shot their father in front of the children. The children were crying then. While coming down from there, we fell into the mud. Because of this, I cannot even stand on my feet,” said Pragati Jagdale.

“The local people there also cried for us, they felt bad because everything the terrorists did was against tourists, and they attacked tourists. The officers there also cried for us, they felt bad about what had happened. The lives of family members of 26 people killed in the terror attack have been completely destroyed,” she claimed.

Meanwhile, Kaustubh Lele, who lost his cousins Sanjay Lele, Hemant Joshi and Atul Mone from Dombivli in the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam on Tuesday, slammed the government, asking it to first ensure safety to its citizens instead of making tall claims about becoming a trillion-dollar economy.

“Focus on bringing ‘acche din’ of safety and security in the lives of Indian citizens, then show them the dream of becoming a dollar economy. Stop show-offs, branding and making loud claims. Take adequate steps for the safety of the people,” he said, expressing his anguish. “It is a big loss for three families as they have lost the head of the families. It has created a big vacuum which cannot be filled. Terror attacks are taking place unabated. Now take some concrete and firm steps against terrorism,” he said.

Continue Reading

International

Murder of Hindu leader: India slams Bangladesh, says killing follows pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities

Published

on

New Delhi, April 19: India on Saturday issued a sharp condemnation of the abduction and brutal killing of Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a prominent Hindu community leader in northern Bangladesh, calling it part of a “pattern of systematic persecution” of minorities under the country’s interim government.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal voiced India’s grave concern, stating that the incident reflects an alarming trend of targetted violence against Hindus and other minority groups in Bangladesh.

“We have noted with distress the abduction and brutal killing of Shri Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a Hindu minority leader in Bangladesh. This killing follows a pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities under the interim government, even as the perpetrators of previous such events roam with impunity,” Jaiswal said in a post on social media platform X.

He added, “We condemn this incident and once again remind the interim government to live up to its responsibility of protecting all minorities, including Hindus, without inventing excuses or making distinctions.”

India has previously expressed similar concerns over rising attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, but this latest incident has drawn particular attention due to Roy’s prominence in the Hindu community.

Roy, who served as the Vice-President of the Biral unit of the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, was abducted from his residence in Dinajpur district on Thursday evening. According to police and family accounts, he received a phone call around 4:30 p.m., after which four unidentified men arrived on motorcycles and forcibly took him to Narabari village. He was reportedly assaulted and later found unconscious. He was rushed to a hospital in Dinajpur, where he was declared dead on arrival. His wife, Shantana Roy believes the attackers used the call to confirm his location before carrying out the abduction.

Opposition leaders in India also slammed the shocking incident in the neighbouring country.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge highlighted that religious minorities, especially Hindus, are being persecuted in Bangladesh.

“Attacks on other religious minorities are also continuing. Recently, the Chief Advisor of Bangladesh made a very condemnable and disappointing comment about the northeastern states of India. The persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh, human rights violations, and the attempt to erase the memories of the 1971 Liberation War are efforts to weaken the relationship between India and Bangladesh. From 1971 till today, India has always wished for peace and prosperity for all the people of Bangladesh. This is in the best interest of the subcontinent,” he said.

Continue Reading

International

Death toll from US airstrikes on Yemeni fuel port rises to 38: Houthis

Published

on

Sanaa, April 18: The death toll from US overnight airstrikes on the Yemeni fuel port of Ras Isa has increased to 38, with 102 others wounded, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported on Friday, citing Houthi-controlled local health authorities.

According to al-Masirah, the casualties include five paramedics who were killed upon arriving at the scene, when the US military launched another wave of airstrikes on the port just minutes after the first on Thursday night.

More than 14 airstrikes on the fuel port were reported during the two waves, igniting massive fires in tanks storing imported fuel. The fires were extinguished within hours, said the report.

The US Central Command said earlier in a statement that it struck and destroyed the Ras Isa port on Thursday to “eliminate this source of fuel for” and “degrade the economic source of power of” the Houthis, Xinhua news agency reported.

In mid-March, US President Donald Trump ordered “decisive and powerful military action” against the Houthis after the group announced plans to resume attacks on Israeli vessels in the Red Sea, citing Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza as the reason.

Earlier on April 17, Yemen’s Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi had said his group had launched 26 attacks against Israel and 33 strikes on the US aircraft carrier and warships in the Red Sea since March 15.

In a televised speech aired by the group’s al-Masirah TV on Thursday, the Houthi leader said the attacks on Israel were carried out using “30 ballistic missiles and drones,” while those targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its escorts involved “122 ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones”.

However, the Israeli military has reportedly intercepted many of the Houthi projectiles before they reached targets, Xinhua news agency reported.

The US Central Command dismissed the Houthi claims of daily attacks on the US aircraft carrier as “outlandish” in a post on the social media platform X.

Meanwhile, the Houthi leader noted that the US military had conducted more than 900 airstrikes against his group’s positions across northern Yemen during the past 30 days.

Tensions between the Houthi group and the US military have escalated since Washington resumed airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15 to deter the group from attacking Israel and US warships in the Red Sea.

The Houthis, which control much of northern Yemen, said their attacks aim to press US-backed Israel to stop the offensive against the Gaza Strip and allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.

Israel’s Channel 12 News reported last Saturday that a Yemeni drone was intercepted near the Dead Sea within the Jordanian airspace before it could reach Israel.

The Jordanian army confirmed later last week that an unidentified drone entered Jordanian airspace and crashed in the Ma’in area of Madaba governorate, near the Dead Sea, and no casualties were reported.

Even since Israel renewed its intensive strikes in March across the Gaza Strip, the Houthis have been launching frequent attacks against Israeli and US targets.

Earlier last week, the Houthi military spokesperson claimed fresh attacks against the US aircraft carrier, USS Harry S Truman, and other US warships in the northern Red Sea.

Continue Reading

Trending